Summary

Catlin is a dedicated L.A. physician whose abilities are second only to her mentor & close friend, Patrick, a renowned trauma surgeon. So when she learns Patrick is dying & in dire need of a bone marrow transplant, she will do anything to help him find a donor. But for some reason, Patrick refuses to go to the man most likely to be a match, his reclusive twin brother, Jesse. Desperate, Catlin sets out on a mission of mercy, never expecting that her search for Jesse will lead her to a love that will change her life.

Author Notes

Katherine Stone was born in Seattle, Washington. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University, where she also completed her pre-med requirements, and a M.D. from the University of Washington. After her internal medicine residency in San Francisco, she did a fellowship in infectious diseases in Los Angeles. During this time, one of the world's largest outbreaks of Legionnaires' Disease occurred at the hospital where she was doing her fellowship. This provided her the opportunity to write and lecture on the mysterious new disease.

She stopped practicing medicine to focus on her writing career. She is the author of 21 novels including Bed of Roses, Imagine Love, Pearl Moon, Twins, Bel Air, Love Songs, and Pearl Moon.

Booklist Review

In her usual polished style, physician-novelist Stone introduces characters who are linked in subtle ways. Heart surgeon Caitlyn Taylor saves the world one broken heart at a time, but she may not be able to save the person she cares most about, her best friend, honorary brother, and fellow surgeon Patrick Falconer. Seriously ill, Patrick is trying desperately to conceal his deteriorating physical condition and his resentment over his body's failing him just when he finds the perfect woman. Psychiatrist Amanda Prentice, the perfect woman in question, bears her own hidden scars that keep her from getting closer to Patrick. Patrick's estranged brother, his twin Jesse, could be a donor, but Patrick refuses to contact him because of a long-standing family feud. Since he won't take the first step, Caitlyn tracks down Jesse under his nom de plume, Graydon Slade, a best-selling author of erotic suspense. Jesse agrees to be tested in secret, and the web tangling these four intimate strangers tightens. Stone's high-quality romance ranks right up there with those of Nora Roberts, Kay Hooper, and Iris Johansen. --Melanie Duncan

Publisher's Weekly Review

Reclusive, mysterious novelist Jesse Falconer becomes the titular thief of hearts who wins the love of heart surgeon Caitlin Taylor in this heart-tugging contemporary romance. When Caitlin learns that her friend and mentor, trauma surgeon Patrick Falconer, urgently needs a bone marrow transplant, she sets out to find Patrick's estranged fraternal twin, Jesse, the most likely donor candidate. Caitlin locates Jesse at his estate on Maui and convinces him to come to L.A. and save his brother's life. Jesse is a tormented man, having been wrongly accused of attempted murder, and having served a prison term for a rape he did not commit. Yet Caitlin sees in him a lonely soul like her own. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Amanda Prentice, a victim of every imaginable trauma (rape, incest, her mother's murder), becomes Patrick's great love. Stone's plot depends heavily on coincidence: Caitlin saves the life of a billionaire's grandson who just happens to be connected to Jesse; later, she finds herself having to operate on the six-year-old girl whom Jesse has treated as his own daughter. Stone (Bed of Roses) has mastered most of the genre's conventions, handling its familiar metaphors (snow, lions, hearts) deftly; even better, she knows how to render sexual passion convincingly without anatomical details though she knows anatomy well enough: she's a physician as well as an author, and her medical knowledge spruces up the surgical scenes. And when Caitlin and Amanda grieve together for their dead mothers, few romance fans will remain unmoved. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved